AUDUBON AND WILSON. 113 
them in their own wild homes, singing to the solitude from 
some chosen spray, or plying, with careless grace, on busy 
wings, their curious sports and labors. 
Here is the legitimate purpose of works of this character— 
to fill the mind with such pleasant images as will win the 
affections forth from the dull centre of mere human sympa- 
thies, through all the wonders of the outer world, up, with a 
wise and chastened adoration, to the Power that framed it. 
Wilson, to a greater degree than any man who had yet 
appeared, felt himself, and caused others to recognize, this 
apostleship of the true Naturalist. 
It was an era, a happy era in philosophy, when art had 
linked its remoter teachings to the hearts of men; and to 
Wilson undoubtedly belongs the glory of having fairly pio- 
neered its ushering. It is impossible to regard the labors of 
this man, even in a purely scientific light, without astonish- 
ment; but when we come to take into consideration all the 
pitiable afflictions and degrading misery entailed upon him by 
“caste,” in his own country, we are lost in affectionate admi- 
ration of his indomitable genius, as we see the shrunk veins 
of the haggard emigrant swelling, when he has touched our 
shore, with a new life hardy enough to cope with the rude 
elements by which he found himself surrounded, and carry 
through triumphantly his remarkable undertaking. 
Spirits with the vigor in them his possessed, ask only the 
vital air of freedom. Difficulties then are nothing. It is no 
wonder, when those trophies which he had wrestled for alone 
with Nature here in her bare and unhoused wilds, and had won 
through trials and poverty, unassisted, had been returned to 
Scotland, that country which drove him forth in rags, and it 
had been offered a share of his glory for its gold, that it should 
have poured out freely the dross upon him in very shame. Nor 
is it surprising, that in the eager reaction of its penitence, it 
shou!d continue to exalt him too highly—claiming for him, to 
the detriment of others, more Same his just dues. 
